Adjustable ladder-hook



narran 'STATES PATENT Ormea.

WILLARD T. FARRAR, OF CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

ADJUSTABLE LADDER-HOOK.

Speeicaton of Letters Patent No. 31,963, dated April 9, 1861.

To all whom Lt may concern:

Be it known that I, IVILLARD T. FARRAR, of Concord, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Adjustable Ladder-Hook, of which the following is a full, clear, and eX- act description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which-` Figure 1, represents a ladder with my improved adjustable hook attached thereto, and the ladder placed on the roof of a building showing an application of my invention. Fig. 2, a view of the hook detached. F 3, shows a modification of my invention.

I am aware that ladders have been Jfurnished with hooks, permanently attached to their sides at the upper end, and that these have long been in use by firemen, builders, painters and others whose occupations required them to mount the roofs of houses, the hooks being used to secure the ladder from falling, either by placing` the hooks over the gutter or eaves when ascending from the ground or over the ridge (as shown in Fig. 1) when at work on the roof. All ladders however are not supplied with these hooks, as they would be inconvenient in many instances; yet they are very often wanted, particularly in such an emergency as a fire, or where workmen are compelled to carry their own ladders from a distanceV to the place where they work, because a ladder with hooks is needed.

The object of my present invention is to obviate this difliculty, and to furnish a hook which may be easily transported separate from the ladder, and may be afiplied to any ordinary ladder when required; and my invention consists, in a hook to be attached to the ladder by clamping it to the two upper rounds, the clamp being` made adjustable so that it may be fitted to ladders of different sizes, or in which the rounds are at different distances apart.

That others skilled in the art may understand and use my invention I will proceed to describe the manner in which I have carried out the same.

In the said drawings A is the ladder, B, the hook, which has its shank formed square at a, and has a screw b, cut on its end. A

clamp C has a hooked portion l made to lit over one of the rounds of the ladder, and two lugs e, f, the former of which has a square hole through which the square part of the shank L slides, while the other lug f has in it a round hole through which the screw b passes and in which it slides freely. A thumb nut g on the screw Zi, serves to force the clamp C farther up on the shank toward the hook. A stationary clamp D is formed on the hook B, immediately below its bend. This hook is applied to the ladder in the following manner: The clamp D is placed against the to-p round of the ladder, and the hook d of the clamp C under the second round against which it is pressed, and the nut r/ is turned up to bind it securely against the round. The length of the screw allows considerable motion to the clamp C to accommodate the variation of distance between the rounds of different ladders. If required two of these hooks may be applied to a ladder, one on each side, but in practice I have found that in most situations, particularly when on the roof that one preferable, as the Aladder can be more easily managed, that is moved about. l

Other mechanical arrangements of th two clamps may be used without departing from the spirit of my invention, for example in Fig. 3, I have shown a modification of my invention, in which the hook B2 is bent over at its lower end at f2 tocatch over the second round, its shank is flattened out at a2 to give room for a slot b2 through which passes t-he screw rod c2 of the adjustable clamp C2. This clamp is bent up at e2 to embrace the upper round, and after heilig adjusted to it, so as to hold the clamp f2 up against the round with which it is in contact, is drawn up and is secured by a thumb nut D2.

That I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- A removable ladder hook, to be clamped to a ladder when required, one of its clamps being made adjustable, substantially as specified.

IVILLARD T. FARRAR.

In presence of N. BROOKS, GEO. M. BRooKs. 

